you likely could get by with consumer grade cards, it would take 2 for sure.You can get Audioscience cards very cheap on Ebay,just have to be looking.The audioscience 5111 is a good card ,about 500.00(new) i believe.Prophet will help you, just tell them you are on a budget and need to know what cards they suggest.you just get more record and play streams with the higher end card.i run the 6114(great sound) only thing that hurts is the best street price is 2 grand.It slices, dices and even predicts the speed of tennis balls with amazing accuracy.ha ha...The older audiosience 4000 series can be had for less than 200.00 on ebay,thatwould be better than consumer grade cards.